The present invention relates generally to audio systems and, more particularly, to methods and systems for coordinating sound production with video object location.
The source of generated sound is an important component of the user experience when watching a movie. Different types of sound effects can be created with multiple speakers installed at different locations of a room. For example, existing audio technologies, such as surround sound systems, attempt to place the sound generated by objects appearing on screen in the room. For example in an action movie a helicopter may be heard flying overheard, the roar of the engines of a fast car moves from left-to-right across the room and so forth. This helps give the illusion that the action is taking place in the room where the visuals are playing.
A common surround sound system is the 5.1 configuration that includes five channels: left screen, center screen, right screen, left surround, and right surround. A separate channel for a subwoofer may be provided for low-frequency effects. The 7.1 surround sound configuration is similar to the 5.1 configuration, with the addition that the left surround and right surround channels are split into four zones: left side surround, right side surround, left rear surround, and right rear surround. In this manner, the 7.1 surround configuration has seven channels, and an optional additional channel for a subwoofer. A more recent development is the 22.2 surround sound configuration including twenty-four speaker channels, which may be used to drive speakers arranged in three layers. An upper speaker layer is driven by nine channels, a middle speaker layer is driven by ten channels, and a lower speaker layer is driven by five channels, two of which are for subwoofers.
These existing surround sound systems use a central channel that drives a speaker that is vertically aligned with the center of the display screen, but not behind the display screen. This central channel cannot, with any precision, track the sound of an object so that the audio emits from the exact location of where that object is positioned on the display screen. Therefore, none of these systems produce a sound at a precise location behind the display screen corresponding to the displayed video object associated with the sound.